Springfield's looking pretty dusty today
I see their dreams coming undone
The view from inside ward nine affords this much
A town teeming with the unloved
Close the window and lock it so it's good and tight

Turning eighteen and trying not to look too lost
Have a not so nice day
The jacket makes me straight so I can just sit back and bake
You know I think I'm gonna stay
Talking very loud but no one hears a word I say

Come visit me tonight at eight o'clock and then
You'll see how I am not the crazy one
Voices tell me I'm the shit

General CommentThis song sort of gives me an impression of medically induced happiness. She's (I assume this is about Elizabeth, like much of the first half of the album) sitting in a ward, looking out, looking around, talking to herself, and allows herself to be swallowed into the smaller thoughts like locking the window properly and the physical sensation of her jacket, while the bigger questions previously asked in songs like "3 Speed" are numbed away by a sedated "la la la", complimented sublimely by some over-the-top-positive string pieces. To me, this is a shattering critique of medically solving depressions, as everything is merely hidden away. And, as we see later, it of course springs back into the surface, with catastrophic results.

This song is also a very good example of how song structure and arrangement is literally equal to the lyrics in terms of telling the story of the album, and enhances my feeling that there is no single note or word on this album that isn't part of the "big picture".

General Commenti have been where this song describes. i have been committed. it's exactly the way this song makes it sound. they dope you up into a cocoon of med induced passiveness. every day seems the same.

General CommentAnother personal story; I picked up this album years ago, but this song in particular brought to my mind the name of a starship; nothing FANCY, just a cargo hauler, but called the Ward Nine. Eventually, this became an actual ship for a tabletop role-playing game where I was playing the "captain", a former Lieutenant in Star Fleet.

Also, my character in particular hated Federation teleportation, and refused to have a single transporter installed on his ship. After the first DOZEN attempts to transport other people on the Ward Nine, he also looked into getting a Transport Inhibitor.